Monday, December 30, 2013

Chimera, by David Wellington

Afghanistan war veteran Jim Chapel has been working a desk job since he lost an arm while on duty, although his highly sophisticated prosthetic arm allows him to operate almost as usual. Chimera starts when Jim is asked by Admiral Hollingshead, of the Defense Intelligence Agency, to help round up, capture, or kill four individuals who've escaped from a high-security facility in New York State. These men have gone their separate ways after their escape; each with a list of people they've been told to kill.

Jim has to start his mission without knowing even the basics: Who are the men? Why were they being detained? Why are they killing the folks on this list? Why is the CIA involved in a DIA project? As he tracks down the four men, one by one, he begins to put the clues together, and learns that the four men are the result of a genetics experiment that was intended to create a new race of humans, in the event of a nuclear holocaust. When the cold war ended and the likelihood of a nuclear war diminished, these men weren't needed, and were simply locked away and forgotten.

This is a fast-paced thriller, with Jim working with Julia Taggart, the daughter of one of the victims, and Angel, a woman assigned to help him but whom he only knows through his cell phone. They are followed and endangered by a CIA crew that is trying to cover up all evidence of their assignment, including them. I recommend Chimera to anyone who likes a fast-paced thriller!